Open Digital Infrastructure

Open Digital Infrastructure represents the set of open-source code, standards and knowledge assets that digital building blocks like software libraries, compilers, communication or network protocols are composed of.

They are created by individuals, volunteer communities, in research institutions and SMEs or other corporate environments. Together, they form a foundation of free and public code that is designed to solve common challenges – firstly, in programming, but when applied, also to provide a multitude of core functions for society.

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Projects RfP#4

Find the awarded initiatives of the Cohort #4 here:

Browser Funding

Asserting Democratic Control over the Browser/Search Funding System

Code Classification

Sociotechnical Repercussions of FOSS Engineering Processes and Code Classification

DPI Privacy

Privacy Risks of Digital Public Infrastructure in India

FOSS Security & Infrastructure Resilience

Understanding Lessons for OSS Security from Historical Trade Security-Efforts

ISP OSS

Enhancing sustainability for Internet Service Providers connecting those most in need

OSM CoCreation

Impacts of Corporate Editing on Collective Intelligence in OpenStreetMap

OSS Compliance

Navigating Software Liability of Public Digital Infrastructure

OSS Research-Software

Incentivizing Investment in and Adoption of Open Infrastructure for Research through Community Health Assessments

Tripartite Commons Governance

The next tripartite governance systems: governments, markets, and commons

Projects RfP#3

Find the awarded initiatives of the Cohort #3 here:

(What Comes) After FOSS?

How do critical technologists imagine the future of their work on digital infrastructure in light of the pyrrhic victory of Free and Open Source Software development?

Beyond Openness, Toward the Common?

The role of open technologies in environmental research

Building Thriving African Open Source Software Communities by Translating Collective Intelligence Methods

How effectively do Interactive Management Research interventions advance thriving in distributed African open source software communities?

Cutting through open washing

To what extent should open source AI systems be exempt from regulation?

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Fediverse Governance Successes & Gaps

Analyzing Effective Governance and Infrastructure Gaps in Medium-to-Large Sized Servers for Enhanced Social Networking

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Infrastructure in Recession

Economic impacts of tech layoffs on FOSS communities

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OSS Transition Calculator

A Calculated Approach to Transitioning from Founder Models to Community-Governed Ecosystems

Strengthening City Governments

Enhancing Security, Governance, and Public Service Delivery through Open Source Promotion and Vulnerability Mitigation.

Understanding the shift away from free and Open Domain Name Servers Resolvers

What factors limit the adoption and use of open digital infrastructure in the domain name system?
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Unmaintained dependencies

How to design tools that encourage and support the replacement of unmaintained dependencies without overwhelming maintainers?

Find the detailed press release about the RfP#3 project selection here.

Projects RfP#2

Find the awarded initiatives of the Cohort #2 here:

API ToS — Towards A Creative Commons Model

How can a standardized API Terms of Service model improve interoperability and openness in digital infrastructure?

Assessing Partnerships for Municipal Digital Infrastructure

How do city governments build digital infrastructure together, and what conditions support or limit these collaborations?

Cooperative Model for Digital Infrastructure

How can cooperative structures sustain digital infrastructure and deepen ties with their user communities?

Digital Infrastructure Incubator

Supporting projects to implement research-informed best practices at the time of need on governance, sustainability, and inclusion.

Digital Infrastructure vs Climate Change

How can FOSS tools support communities in defending their territories and resisting climate threats?

FOSS & Multilingual Computing

How do open source tools enable multilingual computing, especially for underserved language communities?

Fostering Open Collaboration

Will cross-company visibility into shared free and open source dependencies lead to cross-company collaboration and efforts to sustain shared dependencies?

Infrastructure Funders Toolkit

Developing an implementation framework for funders of digital infrastructure with guides, programming, and models

Mapping African Digital Infrastructures

How do African developers engage in open source infrastructure, and what factors influence their participation?

Open Source COVID Data Infrastructure

How do open source communities build and maintain COVID data infrastructure, and how do their practices shape public understanding of the pandemic?

Open Source in Public Service Delivery in India

How are open source principles applied in India’s public service systems, and what challenges affect their use?

Security Ramifications for Open Source Software

How do technical teams assess security risks in FOSS components, and where are system-wide improvements most needed?

Projects RfP#1

Find the awarded initiatives of the Cohort #1 here:

Building International Open Source Communities

What fosters long-term, cross-regional participation in open source projects, especially in underrepresented areas like South Asia?

Conceptual Mismatches

How do mismatched conceptualizations between maintainers and users of a FOSS digital infrastructure project interact to affect the community health and thus sustainability of such projects?

Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion in Open Source Digital Infrastructure Projects

What structural barriers limit inclusion in open source infrastructure, and how can ecosystems become more diverse and equitable?
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FOSS Foundations

How do FOSS Foundations (trade associations or non-profits that provide services such as asset management to open source infrastructure projects) contribute to the operations, sustainability, and success of critical digital infrastructure projects?

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Implicit Development Environments

How do embedded norms and toolchains shape participation and behavior in open source development environments?

Learning from Open Source Communities to Combat Harassment

How have open source communities developed tools and norms to address harassment, and what can others learn from them?

Mapping the Co-Production of Digital Infrastructure by Peer Projects and Firms

How do peer communities and private firms co-develop open infrastructure, and what tensions or benefits arise?

Measuring Underproduction in Open Source Software Infrastructure

How can underproduction in open source infrastructure be identified and addressed before it threatens project stability?

Non-Financial Incentives in Open Source

What kinds of non-monetary incentives support sustained contributions to open source and digital infrastructure?
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Open Digital Infrastructure in Astrophysics

At what points in a software instrument’s lifecycle does an injection of financial resources help or hurt? Are science driven software instruments sustainable for the long term, say the next 40 years? In the project’s report, 17 software projects cover questions on science capability, developer model, target community, bibliometrics, funding profile, and sustainability efforts.

OSS as Digital Infrastructure: Legal Technologies and Institutional Design

Developing and maintaining open source software (OSS) relies on an integration of the technical (e.g. the ways in which open source code is engineered and maintained); the social (e.g. the communities formed around particular OSS projects and their values); and the organizational (e.g. formal OSS institutions, but also cross-cutting regulations, financing, and governance).

Consequently, legal and governance infrastructures shape how the digital infrastructure of open source software is developed and maintained.

The Visible and Invisible Work of Maintaining Free Open Source Software

What types of visible and hidden labor sustain open source infrastructure, and how can these be made more valued and visible?

What makes an open source project “critical digital infrastructure?

What defines an open source project as “critical infrastructure,” and how should that status influence support and oversight?